Three weeks ago I was able to join the amazing team and the outstanding work of Selamatkan Yaki. Before I came to Manado, I did a 4-week internship on Java with the Little Fireface project, where I helped collecting data on the Slow Loris and I mapped a part of the research area. I came to Manado to volunteer for 3,5 months for Selamatkan Yaki, so I’ll be here till the end of June.

This picture of me is taken at Gunung Papandayan in west Java.

I’m from Germany and I study Wildlife management in the Netherlands. I’m now in the second year of my bachelor, doing my orientation internship. This opportunity is perfect for me, as I learn so many different aspects about conservation education and management, so I’m really looking forward to the different challenges that are coming up.

So far I have been working with GIS (Geographic Information System), making a map of the GPS data from the Bacan Island expedition. Right now I’m busy writing a marketing plan for Selamatkan Yaki and I’m also writing on Guidelines on how to map an area with GIS.

Uping interviewing a local family in Batu Putih.

Last week I went with Junita and the rest of the survey team, Michael, Novarianus and Uping, to Tangkoko nature reserve and we conducted surveys in villages surrounding this reserve. We covered Pinangunian, Kasawari, Winenet, Duasudara and Batu Putih Bawa in 5 days. We did 40 surveys for each village plus a METT (Management Efficiency Tracking Tool) survey of each village chief, so it was a challenging but also interesting and exciting week. I attended the introductions of the surveys to the village heads, and some surveys of villagers and village heads. It was a very interesting experience to get to know the different reactions and opinions of the villagers and village heads on the questions and statements. It was also interesting to see how much knowledge they have about conservation and environmental awareness.

Michael interviewing a local lady.We try to get a lot of information from the local people, about opinions and awareness of the environment and animals.

Junita conducting the METT analyse with the village chief of Kasawari. The METT consist of many statements about the management of the Tangkoko reserve.

The village head in Kasawari appreciates our work a lot, he even announced our survey through speakers.

Now I’m looking forward to mainly working with Thirza and Junita on the awareness and education programmes of Selamatkan Yaki.

I’ll also assist in data input and analyses, as well as GIS mapping and organizing funding.